Akiva Goldsman

Perhaps no other screenwriter in the annals of Hollywood history had as varied a career as Akiva Goldsman. For the first decade of his life as a film scribe, Goldsman collaborated with Joel Schumacher...
Read More...

We opened 2014 with heated anticipation for the next great turns from Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, Christopher Nolan, Lars von Trier, and a number of other cinematic vets. But the year has also treated us to a hefty sum of noteworthy first timers. We've caught a wide variety of debut attempts over the course of these past eight months, with enough qualitative range to incite reactions from "The next Hitchcock!" to "I might be able to get you a gig with my friend who does wedding videos, but don't tell him you know me." Here's a quick rundown of the debut flicks we've seen so far in '14, from great to terrible.
THE GREAT
Tribeca Film via Everett Collection
Palo AltoDirector: Gia CoppolaWhy we're already on her bandwagon: In the vein of her aunt Sofia, the young Gia Coppola showcases an indubitable understanding of upper class ennui.
Hide Your Smiling Faces Director: Daniel Patrick CarboneWhy we're already on his bandwagon: Carbone's primarily wordless coming-of-age drama shows off his patience and pensiveness, not to mention his ability to skirt the self-importance than many films of Smiling Faces' ilk seem to bear.
Obvious ChildDirector: Gillian RobespierreWhy we're already on her bandwagon: It's funny as hell even within the margins of genre tradition, and sweet without succumbing to Hollywood sugar.
THE VERY GOOD
Zeitgeist Films
Zero MotivationDirector: Talya LavieShows promise of: A knack for absurdist humor and grounded character relationships alike.
It Felt Like LoveDirector: Eliza HittmanShows promise of: A uniquely keen empathy for how young people conduct themselves, both internally and among one another.
THE GOOD
Tribeca Film via Everett Collection
The Bachelor Weekend/The StagDirector: John ButlerShows potential in: A good sense of humor, especially when it veers closer to Apatow than McKay.
Are You HereDirector: Matthew WeinerShows potential in: Social commentary through character construction, but Weiner needs a better handle on cinematic pacing.
The One I LoveDirector: Charlie McDowellShows potential in: Big ideas, and the presentation thereof, but lacks in the ultimate execution of where they can and ought to go.
THE SO-SO
Drafthouse Films via Everett Collection
Beneath the Harvest SkyDirector: Aron Gaudet and Gita PullapillyThere's room for improvement regarding: A sharper attention to the characters and story, which occasionally fade out of focus at the behest of a vivid North Maine setting.
LullabyDirector: Andrew LevitasThere's room for improvement regarding The acerbic but knowing humor shared by the central family members, in favor of the intense melodrama that the film feels impelled to stuff itself with from time to time.
Cheap ThrillsDirector: E.L. KatzThere's room for improvement regarding: The energy set toward invoking a truly interesting story or course of events, rather than the allowance of the "weird" or "dangerous" to take the wheel altogether like it does here.
TammyDirector: Ben FalconeThere's room for improvement regarding: An authentic commitment to the sincerity in the characters, in place of wild and wacky antics like jetski crashes and deer mouth-to-mouth... though these were probably studio notes, we have to assume.
THE BAD
Music Box Films via Everett Collection
Winter’s TaleDirector: Akiva GoldsmanWhat we hope he gets right next time: A more defined storytelling goal. While some of the film's elements worked in a vaccuum, Goldsman had been gestating a Winter's Tale adaptation for years, coming out the gate with something that is oddly both convoluted and terribly narrow.
MaleficentDirector: Robert StrombergWhat we hope he gets right next time: More Angie.
A Coffee in Berlin/Oh BoyDirector: Jan Ole GersterWhat we hope he gets right next time: A better understanding of the fine line between cheeky and irritating.
Earth to EchoDirector: Dave GreenWhat we hope he gets right next time: Ditch the essentially pointless found footage antic and hone in on the fleeting spirit of the kids.
THE WORST
Vertical Entertainment
TranscendenceDirector: Wally PfisterWhy we're nervous for his future: Pfister is a skilled cinematographer, but his grasp of character, story, and ambiance seem dangerously absent.
Goodbye to All ThatDirector: Angus McLachlanWhy we're nervous for his future: Ambitions seem to fall shy of originality, settling instead on retreading the same indie dramedy territory we've seen time and time again, but without any discernible charisma.
If I StayDirector: R.J. CutlerWhy we're nervous for his future: A dastardly aesthetic, paper-thin characters, a devoted marriage to teen movie cliches, and a potentially dangerous mentality driving the story altogether do not bode well for Cutler's future behind the camera.
Behaving BadlyDirector: Tim GarrickWhy we're nervous for his future: Because he thought this horrible thing could work.
Follow @Michael Arbeiter | Follow @Hollywood_com

Warner Bros Pictures via Everett Collection
Even without having read Mark Helprin's novel Winter's Tale, I have the unshakable feeling that Akiva Goldsman's film adaptation does not do the story justice. Speckled throughout the moreover colorless movie are hints of an intriguing idea — a fantasy epic about an angel-demon bureaucracy coexisting with the human race throughout the span of 20th century New York City, operating within the parameters of a didactic miracle-granting system — an idea that doesn't come close to its full potential. In 118 minutes, we barely scratch the surface of the world in which an apparently immortal Colin Farrell finds himself. We see him cavort with Russell Crowe, a malicious gang-leader with netherworld origins, seek guidance from a mystical Pegasus, and carry out his destiny as the savior to a mysterious red-haired girl. But we never truly understand why any of this is happening. Not that it gets particularly confusing; on a plot level, it's all quite simple. But that's the problem — it shouldn't be.
The central conceit of the film is that everyone is put on this Earth with a divine "mission" to uphold. Farrell's gives us the narrative of Winter's Tale, introducing the various rules and officers of the supernatural regime along the way. Abandoned as a baby and brought up under the criminal regime of a Manhattanite from Hell (Crowe), Farrell ascends from orphan to petty thief to horse whispering renegade to whimsical lover of a dying Jessica Brown Findlay to ageless messiah... all without much clarity on the nature of the story (or stories) he's occupying, save for two ham-fisted scenes of exposition — one with Graham Greene (not the dead author) and one with Jennifer Connelly, who shows up halfway through the movie for some reason.
Warner Bros Pictures via Everett Collection
The world that Farrell is woven into has so many bright spots: we're on board for miracle quests, a magic-laden New York City, flying horses, and one of the biggest stars in Hollywood giving a cameo as the epitome of evil. Everything we see is fun, but it all flutters away as quickly as it arrives. We don't want quick bites of the way angels and demons do business with one another on the streets of Manhattan, we want the whole meal. A more thorough exploration of Helprin's world wouldn't just be doubly as interesting as the thin alternative we're offered in Goldsman's adaptation, it'd also fill in all the comprehensive gaps in Farrell's emotional throughline
We don't really understand so much of what happens to Farrell. Even when we're offered tangible explanations, we have no reason to understand why the Winter's Tale world works in such a way that Farrell might survive a 300-foot fall, develop amnesia, or sustain youth for a full century. What's more, we don't understand why Farrell's tale as a cog in this mystical machine is any more important than anyone else's. Or, if it's not, and we're simply asked to watch him carry out his quest as a glimpse into the vast, enigmatic system that Winter's Tale is ostensibly founded upon, we ... we don't understand enough of that world itself.
Warner Bros Pictures via Everett Collection
We're never invited close enough to any of the movie's attractive features for them to matter. So even when the movie does offer entertaining bits — in its fantastical elements, its detail of New Yorks old and new, or Farrell's admittedly charming romance with Findlay — we're not engaged enough to really connect with any of them.
Still, the flying horse is pretty cool.
2.5/5
Follow @Michael Arbeiter
| Follow @Hollywood_com

"My favorite version, which I quite like: you start the trailer and you see Brad (Pitt) and he's doing stuff and (voiceover) says, 'Meet John Smith', and then you see Angie (Jolie), and she's doing stuff, and (voiceover) says, 'Meet Jane Smith'. Then you hear, 'Ding dong!' And you open the door and it's Will and Jada (Smith), and it goes, 'Meet their new neighbors! Mr. & Mrs. Smith 2!'" Filmmaker Akiva Goldsman jokes about taking charge of a proposed sequel to Mr & Mrs. Smith. Goldsman produced the original.

Moviemaker Akiva Goldsman made sure his new romance Winter's Tale was a star-studded affair by calling on favours from famous friends like Will Smith, Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly. The director was given a strict budget of $40 million to make the film after asking executives at Warner Brothers for twice that amount - and so he knew he'd have to get creative to put together the film he wanted to make.
He landed his A Beautiful Mind co-stars Crowe and Connelly as part of a package deal, as they were completing work on Biblical epic Noah and begged pal Smith to join in the fun.
He tells WENN, "We didn't have the money to make the movie... so everyone did it for love or kindness or friendship or belief in some idea of the way the world works and magic inside the world.
"Will is a friend and I needed the devil and he said, 'Yes'. I knew that Russell and Jenny were in fact making Noah, and in fact went horrifically from the Noah set to our set... Managing having two actors in two different movies was tough. Friendship and alcohol prevailed and we made it through!"

Patrick Swayze's 1990 film Ghost is heading to the small screen for a new TV adaptation. The hit film, which starred Swayze as a ghost trying to avenge his death and protect his fiancee, played by Demi Moore, grossed more than $500 million (GBP333,000) worldwide, scored Academy Awards for co-star Whoopi Goldberg and screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin, and was even adapted into a Broadway musical.
And now bosses at Paramount Television have recruited TV producers Jeff Pinkner and Akiva Goldsman to co-write a pilot for a planned TV adaptation.
Pinkner and Goldsman previously worked together on cult sci-fi series Fringe.

Lady Sybil is back, ya'll — well, the actress who played her is, at least. In the trailer for the romantic fantasy Winter's Tale, Downton Abbey's Jessica Brown Findlay is romanced by Colin Farrell (although we wish she were still madly in love with her Irish rebel back at the Downton estate), and... time-travel is involved?
The Warner Bros. film, which is based on Mark Helprin's 1983 novel of the same name, follows a thief named Peter (Farrell) who falls in love with a dying woman named Beverly (Findlay). (Side note: Why is Findlay always dying?). Decades later, we find an un-aged Peter in New York City with no recollection of his former life. Yes, it appears that we've got another time-traveling romance on our hands (we're looking at you, About Time), or as IMDB says, a story of reincarnation.
FilmTrailerZone/YouTube
The trailer makes the film's plot seem a little bit scattered, but what we can discern from the two-and-a-half minute peek is that Jennifer Connelly eventually steps in to help forgetful, time-jumping Peter remember who he is and what happened to him and Beverly. Oh, and Russell Crowe plays a mobster with a gigantic scar on his face who's out to kill Peter, and Peter's mystical horse might be able to travel through time as well. Yup, that's all we can put together. Take a look at the trailer and try and figure out if you can solve the Winter Tale mystery.
Winter's Tale, which is directed by Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind), is set to hit theaters on Feb. 14, 2014. If the film is being released on Valentine's Day, it has to have a happy ending, right?

The true horror story involving Stephen King's Dark Tower anthology exists beyond the confines of the series' pages — it envelops producers, studios, and fans, and chronicles the tragic plight of the books to get the screen adaptation for which they've been vying for years.
Initially, Paramount Pictures had the rights to turn King's Dark Tower into a movie, but sacrificed them in favor of alternative projects. Then came Universal, which announced its DT movie in 2010. By then, names like Ron Howard and Bryan Grazer (Imagine Entertainment partners) were attached; Akiva Goldsman has since been named as screenwriter. Some time after Universal dropped the material, Warner Bros. swooped in and picked it up. "Could this be the one that holds?" King fans all begged (that's how they talk). Unfortunate news for all hopefuls of a Dark Tower on the big screen: The Hollywood Reporter reveals now that the Warners have also abandoned their involvement with the project. Why doesn't anybody want to make this movie? Hope is not lost entirely, though: Deadline reports that Media Rights Capitol is expressing serious interest in the adaptation venture. But it's difficult to avoid discouragement. And it begs questions about the lasting fertility of the author's writing as far as the movie industry goes. See, the most recent Stephen King adaptation to be released in American theaters is The Mist, which came out in 2007 (based on the 1980 novella). Five years might not seem like an incredibly long hiatus to stand between two feature films derived from the works of one author, but it's a lifetime in the perspective of King's big screen history. The 1980s saw eleven King movies open theatrically; the 1990s: fifteen; and between 2001 and 2007, six of the prolific writer's stories were turned into major motion pictures. But our country's cinema over the past half a decade has been devoid of King's literature. There are a handful in the works: Kimberly Peirce's Carrie remake is shooting presently (with Chloe Moretz and Julianne Moore as the White women), and Deathly Hallows director David Yates has been named in attachment to a film series adaptation of The Stand. Even a The Shining prequel has been mentioned. And while these projects might well see the light of day, Dark Tower continues its stroll through purgatory. Why? It's a mystery, really. The novel series has as great a fan base as any of King's other works; it is perhaps revered to an even greater degree than most others are, in fact. But like Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote or Richard Williams' original imagining of The Thief and the Cobbler, Dark Shadows seems to be a terrific prospect with very bad fortune. [Photo Credit: Michael Whelan] More: Kevin Costner to Assemble Tom Clancy Characters 'Avengers'-Style How 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' Author Did It All for the Movie Ewan MacGregor, Naomi Watts Prove 'The Impossible' is Possible — TRAILER

It's official: the Stephen King Movie Renaissance is now in full swing. With the announcement that two producers are headed to the Cannes Film Festival to sell a big screen version of King's short story The Reach (a tale King is often quoted as saying he would "most like to be remembered for after his death"), a new era of the author's movie adaptations has begun. There's been no shortage of movies based on the writings of King since the author's career exploded in the '70s, but finally the quality is hitting its peak. That hasn't always been the case.
Most people would label Stephen King as a horror writer, thanks to seminal works like Carrie, The Shining and It. In the '80s and early '90s, that's exactly what he was to Hollywood: a source material mine that resulted in two decades of half-hearted, shlocky horror flicks — apologies to anyone with a strong passion for Gary Busey's werewolf movie Silver Bullet or Children of the Corn. Brian de Palma's Carrie or Stanley Kubrick's The Shining stand apart as outliers to the trend, but more often than not, King's works were reduced to silly adaptations cashing in on the man's success. Heck, King himself even boarded the train with his directorial debut, Maximum Overdrive (you know, the one where a killer mac truck takes down a little league game.
But Stephen King isn't simply a horror writer. In the second half of the '90s, some of his most interesting, genre-bending works were translated into compelling big screen dramas. The Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Claiborne, Apt Pupil and the The Green Mile showed off the potential of King's works when taken seriously. There were still some painful horror misfires as Hollywood segued into the new millennium — remember Dreamcatcher? — but with most of the horror tomes translated to screen decades before, Hollywood was finally looking for new ways to bring King's books to life.
Jump to today, and you'll find a movie business even more enthralled by King's work than ever before. With the author working as steadily as he was years ago, Hollywood is pushing to take the author's recognizable brand to the next level — and on a variety of levels. The Reach (part of King's Skeleton Crew collection) is an unconventional by Hollywood's standards: the story follows a 95 year old woman is decides its finally time to leave her home, Goat Island, and cross the waters to the mainland. Along the way, she comes across the ghosts of those who passed away on the island — many of them familiar faces from her past. The movie is budgeted in the $12-15 million range, a distinctly indie approach to adapting King.
The Reach joins a plethora of King adaptations currently in the works, ranging from blockbusters to independents to TV series:
The Stand: Warner Bros. was courting Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows director David Yates to take on King's end of the world saga, but has since turned to Ben Affleck. The 1994 mini-series is a TV movie classic, but the WB hopes to launch a two-movie franchise that can do service to the book's epic scale.
Pet Sematary: First made in 1989, Transformers producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, writer Matthew Greenberg (who penned the entertaining King adaptation 1408) and director Alexander Aja (The Hills Have Eyes, Piranha 3-D) will bring King's terrifying dead pet story back to life.
11/22/63: Director Jonathan Demme, who won an Oscar for his work on The Silence of the Lambs, is set to write and direct a feature based on King's latest novel, a time travel saga revolving around JFK's assassination.
Carrie: Continuing the trend of gravitas, Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry, Stop-Loss) tackles a retelling of King's supernatural high school drama with one of the finest young actresses working today: Chloe Moretz. Keeping the bar set high is four-time Oscar-nominated actress Julianne Moore as Carrie's mother.
Under the Dome: Lost writer and comic book overlord Brian K. Vaughn is set to adapt King's massive ensemble drama into a TV show for Showtime.
Rose Madder: Nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 2004 for In America, Naomi Sheridan is writing an adaptation of King's story of marital abuse and otherworldly escape.
The Dark Tower: King's seven-book Western/Fantasy epic is getting the Lord of the Rings treatment from director Ron Howard, writer Akiva Goldsman and producer Brian Grazer. Originally set up at Universal, the movie/television hybrid (the plan is to jump back and forth between the two mediums over several years) has recently jumped to Warner Bros.
There's no shortage of King in the works, but for one of the first times in the author's career, it finally looks like Hollywood is doing it right.
Find Matt Patches directly on Twitter @misterpatches and remember to follow @Hollywood_com!
More:
Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower' Reborn at Warner Bros.
Pierce Brosnan Stars In Stephen King Miniseries
Steven Spielberg, Stephen King to Collaborate on 'Under the Dome' Adaptation
Photo Credit: WENN
[THR]

Right about now, Jessica Brown Findlay is thanking her lucky stars she had the good judgment to sign on for Downton Abbey. No one could have assumed that a PBS period piece about pre-WWII English nobility would have become such a wildly popular, star-making project. But Findlay, who plays Lady Sybill Crawley on the program, is already finding new avenues branching off of her Abbey road. Findlay has signed on for a role in Winter's Tale, the fantasy movie to be directed by renowned screenwriter Akiva Goldsman.
Winter's Tale is based on a novel by Mark Helprin. The adaptation will mark Goldsman's directorial debut. Goldsman collaborators Russell Crowe and Will Smith are also in talks to star in the film in major roles. Right about now, Findlay is prepping a pretty big "I told you so."
Goldsman has written such films as Crowe starrers A Beautiful Mind (for which he won an Oscar) and Cinderella Man, and Smith starrers I, Robot and I Am Legend. In addition to these superstar adventurers, names in connection to this project include Garrett Hedlund and Aaron Johnson.
The novel embraces mythological and spiritual elements to tell a story set in an alternative New York City, wherein characters such as a dying woman (Findlay) and a thief find one another and affect each other's lives. Considering what he did in I Am Legend, it's clear that Goldsman knows his way around messing with New York City.
[Deadline]

When Universal scrapped its mega-budget adaptation of Stephen King's post-apocalyptic western The Dark Tower last July, most assumed that spelled the end for the project, despite the vows of director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer (pictured right) to the contrary. Eight months later, The Dark Tower has indeed risen from the ashes, albeit in a slightly less ambitious form, at Warner Bros.
Deadline.com reports that the studio has bought the rights to Akiva Goldsman's script for the first film in the Dark Tower series (King's original saga spans seven novels) and is planning for Howard to begin production on the film in the first quarter of 2013, pending a Goldsman re-write. It's a far cry from the three-movies-plus-a-TV-series commitment that Universal reportedly pulled out of last year, but it's certainly a positive step for fans of the novels. And there's a significant chance a Dark Tower series could land still land on HBO.
At this point it's unclear whether Javier Bardem, who had been slated to star in The Dark Tower when it was at Universal, is still officially attached to the project. Deadline reports only that he could "possibly" star in the revamped version.
Source: Deadline.com

Received credit for adapting Alice Hoffman's novel "Practical Magic" for the screen

Contributed to the screenplay for "The Recruit"

Made screenwriting debut with "The Client"; first collaboration with Joel Schumacher

Penned "Angels & Demons," the film adaptation of Dan Brown's novel and sequel to "The Da Vinci Code"; re-teamed with Hanks and Howard

Produced the big screen adaptation of "Lost in Space"; also wrote the screenplay

Summary

Perhaps no other screenwriter in the annals of Hollywood history had as varied a career as Akiva Goldsman. For the first decade of his life as a film scribe, Goldsman collaborated with Joel Schumacher on some of the director's more derided films, including "Batman Forever" (1995) and the universally lambasted "Batman & Robin" (1997). Despite the financial success of both movies, Goldsman was trapped in a cycle of taking any job that came his way, rather than putting pen to paper on the stories he wanted to write. By the time the millennium rolled around, Goldsman was one of the top scribes working in the business, thanks in part to a lucrative side business as an uncredited writer-for-hire. But he finally received the respect he deserved when he became a member of the power trio that included director Ron Howard and star Russell Crowe on "A Beautiful Mind" (2001), which earned Goldsman his first Academy Award win. Following another critically acclaimed Howard-Crowe-Goldsman collaboration on "Cinderella Man" (2005), he baited controversy with successful adaptations of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" (2006) and "Angels and Demons" (2009), both of which confirmed that he was the top working screenwriter of his day.

Name

Role

Comments

Rebecca Goldsman

Wife

Died of a heart attack on July 6, 2010

Tev Goldsman

Father

Co-founded Blueberry Treatment Centers, one of the first group homes for emotionally disturbed children; divorced from Goldsman's mother

Mira Rothenberg

Mother

Holocaust survivor; co-founded Blueberry Treatment Centers, one of the first group homes for emotionally disturbed children; divorced from Goldsman's father